At a recent presentation by two colleagues on the ADA, the subject was doctors’ notes in support of leave as a reasonable accommodation. One of the audience members said, “Well, you know what doctor the employee is going to visit, don’t you? Dr. Summeroff.”
The line got a huge laugh from the audience, but it was a rueful laugh—it seemed that every HR manager in the audience had an employee who was a patient of Dr. Summeroff.
I thought it was a great lesson in real-world HR—not compliance, not policy, but dealing with Dr. Summeroff.
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I asked a neighbor who’s an internist whether he was a Dr. Summeroff. He said that he’s pretty tough on his patients. He said that what he encounters is not patients asking for a month off, but patients who want to gain a long weekend (e.g., he says to the patient, “You’re OK to return to work Friday,” and the patient says, “How about Monday?”) or patients who are gaming the employer’s system (e.g., want to burn sick days instead of vacation days).
My questions to readers:
- Do you have Dr. Summeroff scenarios you’d be willing to share (no names, dates, or places, of course)?
- Do you have any techniques to suggest for HR managers who receive outrageous doctor’s notes (other than “Grin and bear it”)?
Use the comments link below or e-mail me direct at sbruce@blr.com.
I’ll share your horror stories and coping techniques in a future issue.
Thanks,
Steve
Stephen D. Bruce, PhD, PHR
Editor, HR Daily Advisor, Compensation & Benefits Daily Advisor
I work for a young, continually growing leader in payment risk management solutions. We are working to create an empowered, trusting environment and feel we will be rewarded with engaged, loyal and committed employees. We are considering subscribing to the philosophy described in the article “Unlimited Vacation Time: The Ultimate Work Benefit” by Lisa Scherzer (see link) http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/unlimited-vacation-time-ultimate-benefit-160807503.html. We anticipate minimal risk as time off requests still need to be approved, and employees who might take advantage would be few and dealt with through normal performance management measures. We need to get “buy in” from the board and all the Executive team before we make the final decision. However, currently we do have a casual and flexible attendance policy and PTO plan that is working for us. We just hope to improve to add a benefit that will help our recruiting and retention efforts.
A few years ago at a different company an EE went on a stress related FMLA leave. (The stress appeared to be mostly because the EE was not hitting sales goals.) Though this person had medical documentation we were suspicious, i.e., was the EE seeing “Dr. Summeroff?” After consulting outside counsel we decided to let the EE take the leave. We later found out that the “stressed out” EE went to Europe for several weeks to “tend to family matters.” It seems like we were had by a crafty EE and a Dr. Summeroff. But, when the EE returned we merely prorated sales goals to account for the leave and sent the person back out into the field to (unsuccessfully) pursue them. The EE later resigned after not getting a bonus.
At my previous institution in Appalachia we had a Dr. Summeroff that everyone went to in order to get FMLA, ADA or Worker’s compensation. With some of the more outrageous requests I attempted to engage with the good Doctor on why that particular accommodation was the only one necessary. Sent some to the University doctor. Only one had to go to a third doctor.